


Alliances

by AMidnightDreary



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: As in you know, Dark Tony Stark, Gen, Good Loki (Marvel), Implied/Referenced Mind Control, Implied/Referenced Violence, Insanity, M/M, Mental Instability, Minor Character Death, Paralysis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2020-03-08 19:25:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18901096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AMidnightDreary/pseuds/AMidnightDreary
Summary: In which Loki finds out that Tony Stark isn't with the Avengers anymore.





	Alliances

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first time I wrote dark Tony and I also wrote it in like two hours, so I'm sorry if it doesn't make a lot of sense. Hope you like it, anyway!

Being king was, all in all, less fun than Loki had expected.

Of course, he had always known that being king was not _easy_ , and that the duties and the pressure had to be stifling, but he'd thought that he would enjoy having this much power at his disposal, at least. And he did enjoy that - or rather he had, in the beginning.

As it turned out, having this much power became a little annoying when you had to use it for something like _this._ Because, no matter how much Loki wanted to use it for some mischief, he knew what he knew, and what he knew was that the Mad Titan was coming.

Not only for Loki, no. He would come for the whole universe. And Loki was, to his own very great chagrin, the only one who knew enough about the Titan's plans to disrupt them. Or to stall him, at least.

In the beginning, Loki had told himself that what he'd done was enough, that there wasn't anymore he could do. The tesseract was as secure in the vault of Asgard as it could possibly be, and with a little luck, nobody would look for the reality stone in the collector's belongings. The mind stone was on Midgard, still in the scepter, and however dull humans might be, the director of SHIELD was not stupid. Also, Thor was looking for the rest of the stones, even though he wasn't aware of it, and with Loki keeping his eyes open for them as well, they might even locate them before Thanos.

Until then, there wasn't anything Loki could do, really. He also had a kingdom to rule, after all, and that was complicated enough. He didn't need to make it anymore complicated, he hadn't _wanted_ to get involved in - well.

Whatever this was.

Loki was standing in the forests surrounding a not all too great fortress, somewhere in a rather far-off area of Midgard. There was a city close by, but Loki hoped that the civilians wouldn't be disturbed.

Yes. That was what had become of him; somebody who worried about _civilians._

Then again, that was not a recent development, not really. More a… return to something that had been, long ago. He couldn't count the times he had kept Thor from warmongering his way through villages full of people who hadn't done anything to deserve the Thunderer's anger.

Loki sighed and shook his head, chasing every thought of his brother out of his mind. He needed to concentrate. He had been in this fortress several times during the last ones, invisible and undetectable. Since he had noticed that the scepter wasn't actually in the hands of SHIELD anymore, he had been trying to figure out what to do, how to bring it back into safe hands. Loki had watched as they tinkered around with it and experimented with those children, who were now far stronger than they should have been. That was what had made him decide that he had to do something, and that as soon as possible.

No more watching, no more waiting. And, most importantly, no more scheming until it was too late.

Loki would take the scepter. To Asgard, at first, and then he would see what to do with it, where to hide it. Everywhere was better than here, because these humans didn't even know what to do with the power they wielded and had still managed to abuse it.

Loki teleported into the fortress, materializing in the corridor that led to the room with the secret door. He had already made a few steps when he realized that something here was very, very wrong, even though he couldn't put his finger on it at first. It took a moment until he figured it out.

Silence.

Complete, all-encompassing silence. Loki could not hear a single sound. And that was odd, because there had _always_ been sounds to hear in this fort. People were working here, after all; there had been the sound of them talking echoing through the dark corridors, the rattle of machines, the beeps of electronic devices. But now, it was so quiet that Loki barely dared to breathe, because the sound of it seemed to loud in the silent hallway.

Loki slowly made his way to the room with the secret door, listening out for any kind of noise that told him that he wasn't alone. He sent out threads of magic that should alert him when somebody else was here, but even according to that he was the only living person in this fortress.

 _Living_ being the important word here, because there were certainly a lot who were not living anymore.

Loki stepped over two corpses on his way to the secret door. They were lying in the middle of the room, and he recognized both the woman and the man. They were the guards that had often kept watch here. When he found the door in the stone wall already open, he figured that they hadn't done their job very well.

He slipped through the door and walked down the stairs, his steps as silent as they could possibly be. He had been here before, too, in this vast basement where these humans kept their most treasured trinkets.

The sight of the Leviathan made a shiver run down Loki's spine, no matter how often he had already seen it. Recalling the Chitauri was never pleasant.

There were two more bodies lying down here, so he noticed when he approached the scepter. The sight of the siblings actually made him falter. His eyes wandered over their bodies, curled together in death. He could feel his heartbeat quicken in alarm, because these two, however young they might have been, could _not_ have been easy to kill.

Loki swallowed and looked up again, using his magic to scan the big hall. There was nobody, though; whoever had caused this masacre seemed to be already gone.

It was a mistake, thinking himself safe like that.

Loki made his way to the table on which the scepter was perched, but long before the scepter was even within arm's reach, he was made to stop.

He couldn't possibly say _why_ he stopped, at least not at first. But then, after a second, he realized that he simply couldn't _move_ , that his limbs had frozen in place and didn't obey him anymore. There was a far too high sound ringing in his ears, making his head hurt, and his chest felt so tight that he couldn't take a proper breath. The panic rushing through his veins was blinding, fatal, and he didn't know what was _going on_ , but he knew that, yes, something here was indeed very, very wrong.

“Wow”, a voice behind him said. “To be honest, I can't believe this actually worked on you. I had some doubts.”

That voice. Loki _knew_ that voice, but it took him a moment until he could place it - until he found a cocky grin in his memories that matched the cheerful tone. Oddly enough, recognizing the man that stood somewhere behind him made Loki's panic fade, just a little. Being captured by the Avengers was slightly embarrassing, but not actually life threatening; Loki would easily find a way out of this.

If only he could _speak._

The ringing in his ears stopped, suddenly, and he could hear the steps behind him, approaching him. Loki tried to turn his head, to look at the man that appeared at the edges of his side, but his muscles still didn't obey.

“Sucks, doesn't it?”, Tony Stark said, his voice almost gleeful. He came to stand in front of Loki, allowing the god to see him.

Something about the mortal's grin made Loki want to frown. The unsettling smile only widened after Stark looked at Loki properly through his oddly colored glasses.

“I've been there, you know. It's not fun, the pain flaring up in your muscles, the tightness in your chest.” Stark cocked his head to one side, fascinated. “Can you still breathe?”

He waited a moment, almost as if waiting for a reply, but then he shrugged and reached up, pulling two small devices out of his ears. “You see”, he said, “I had this used on me a few years ago. I've made a few improvements since then, since I wanted it to work on _you._ ” Stark's eyes flickered past Loki, back to the siblings’ corpses. “I tried it on them. They didn't survive, somehow.”

He frowned, suddenly, but it took just a second until his grin widened again. “I think I just figured out why you villains enjoy monologuing so much. It's fun. _But_ I'd like to talk to you, actually, so let's wait a few minutes until the paralyzation wears off a bit, yeah?”

He turned around and walked away, not sparing Loki another glance. The god was left to stare at the scepter, which was just a few feet away. He tried to call upon his magic, but it didn't come. Somehow, this mortal had managed not only paralyzing Loki's muscles, but also his magic.

Loki refused to be scared.

Stark appeared in his visions not long after, carrying his chair. He placed it behind Loki, then walked around him again. The smirk that had been pulling at the human's lips faded, suddenly, and something else appeared in his gaze as he looked at Loki, his dark eyes flickering over the god's frame.

“You look different”, he said. “Better. Playing king suits you, I think.”

He knew. He _knew._ How -

“Oh, surprised that I know that?”, Stark asked, raising a brow. He stepped closer and put his hand on Loki's chest, running his fingers over the leather armour. He murmured his next words, a little distracted. “It was easy enough to figure out, after Thor told us about your death and, pretty much in the same breath, that his dear daddy's politics had changed a _lot_ all of a sudden.” He met Loki's eyes again. “You're a good king, aren't you?”

He waited again, but Loki still couldn't reply. And just like that Stark's gaze turned cold and hard, his lips twisting into a small and bitter smile.

“Maybe we would have done good accepting you as ours, huh?”, he said. “Maybe Earth needs just that, a king.”

Stark moved a bit until he stood at Loki's side. Then the hand on Loki's chest pushed him down and, with the help of Stark's leg kicking against the back or the mage's knees to bend them, Loki ended up sitting on the chair. Stark's hands on his shoulders were almost gentle when he made him lean against the backrest.

“You'll feel better in a few minutes”, Stark promised, his voice quiet. “Much better. Can you speak?”

Loki could swallow, at least, and move his tongue. His head too, a little bit; he could turn it slightly to look at Stark. But the rest or his body was still frozen, as was his magic.

 _Where is the rest of your team_?, he wanted to ask, but the words that came out of his mouth were only a slurred mess. Stark seemed to understand the gist of it, anyway. He snorted a laugh.

“My team? You think the Avengers are waiting somewhere between the trees outside?” Stark moved again and stopped in front of Loki, looking down at him. “Do you hope that your big brother will come and get you out of this?” He laughed. “Hell, I wonder what Rogers would say if he saw all those corpses lying around here. He'd be _devastated._ ”

Loki stared at him.

Stark arched a brow. “Really, Lokes, I thought you were _clever._ Haven't you figured this out by now?”

Of course. Of course Loki had, but now the realization hit him like a mighty punch in the chest, knocking what little air had been left out of his lungs.

 _You are alone_ , he wanted to say, but again didn't manage to say it properly. And again Stark understood, anyway.

“Am I?”, he asked and leaned down, smoothing a wayward strand of Loki's hair out of his face. “You are with me, aren't you? _Finally."_

And that - what did that mean?

Loki stayed silent and glared at Stark as well as he could. He still couldn't move, not even his fingers. Stark's fingers were stroking down his temple and eventually cupped his jaw, making him tilt his head up.

“Your eyes are lovely like this”, Stark said, and then he took his hand away as if he had burned himself, his lips pressing into a thin line. “It's almost a shame, really.”

Stark yanked his eyes away from Loki and walked over to the long table, stopping in front of the scepter. Loki could see him trailing his fingers along one of the most dangerous weapons in the universe, almost caressing it.

“I'm not with the Avengers anymore”, Stark spoke up again, his tone almost casual. “They think I'm insane. But you - Thor said you fell. You've seen the void, too. You have to _understand_ -”

He turned around and leaned against the table, crossing his arms. Loki looked at him, still trying to get his body to move, still trying to make his magic obey.

“What do you want from me?”, he asked, the words still a bit slurred, but understandable.

“Yeah, what could I possibly want from the guy who sits on the throne of Asgard? From the guy who knows what _really_ happened in New York, and why?” Stark huffed a laugh. “Take an educated guess, Rock of Ages.”

They were all looking for power in the end, weren't they?

“I've been tracking this damned place for months”, Stark said. He pushed himself away from the table, coming a few steps into Loki's direction. “I only wanted the scepter, initially. But then my sensors started picking up some funny spikes of energy, just like those you emitted in New York, and then I - and then I wanted _you._ ”

“You want a deal.” Loki had to speak very slowly, but Stark didn't interrupt him. “An alliance. I know what you are fighting against, I'm willing to help -”

“No, you're not”, Stark said. “But you will be.”

He held out his hand, and just a moment later something shot out of the darkness and towards him. Loki recognized it; a gauntlet of Stark's suit. Stark moved his now ironclad fingers, clenching and unclenching them, and after a moment he turned around and walked back to the scepter. He took hold of it, spinned around and tested how it felt in his hand, his gaze fixed on its yellow core.

Then, his eyes snapped back to Loki.

Loki watched as Stark approached him. And when the mortal stopped directly in front of him, Loki saw that there was no point in trying to reason with the man - Stark had a plan, and he would hold onto it. Loki knew that, because the look in Stark's brown eyes was so achingly familiar. Loki recognized something in them; an old friend of sorts, even though a friend he had hoped to bury and forget one day.

_Insanity._

“Peace for our time”, Stark said, too lightly. He grinned; a lovely, lopsided thing Loki might have liked, under different circumstances. “It's a complicated endeavour, and I'm - I'm sorry that I'm dragging you into this, honestly.”

He looked at Loki for a moment, but not long enough for Loki to pull at his magic forcefully enough to _use_ it. He tried - Norns, he tried, because if there was one thing the God of Mischief was truly terrified of, then it was _this_. He would rather die than endure this a second time, but -

“But maybe Earth does need a king”, Stark muttered. The grin disappeared and, with a determined and fiery glint in his eyes, he touched the tip of the scepter to Loki's chest. “I'm going to give her one.”

Loki's mind went blank.

 


End file.
